Russia

Two 24MW projects for northern Russia

RUSSIA: Russian developer Wind Energy Systems (WES) has signed an agreement with the government of the Karelia in the north-east of the country to construct two 24MW wind farms.

Under the agreement, the new wind farms will be built in the Belomorsky and Kemsky districts of Karelia. Commissioning is scheduled for 2015-16.

Each station is expected to be comprised of four wind turbines, which are expected to be delivered by any of WES' long-time partners among which are Vestas, Gamesa and Siemens.

Total volume of investments in the project is estimated at RUB 14 billion (USD$420 million).

This is expected to be one of the few projects in the Russian wind power industry, which, so far, remains largely underdeveloped. This is due to rich raw material base of the country and the lack of attention from the state.

In contrast to the governments of other former Soviet states, the Russian government is still not considering the adoption of measures to stimulate the development of the domestic wind power industry. It is believed one of the reasons of this is the opposition of the country's powerful oil and gas lobby.

At the same time Russia has big wind power potential. According to analysts' calculations, it is currently estimated at 260 billion kWh/year, equivalent to about 30% of all electricity produced by domestic power plants.

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